The
UFO Robo was the last of the Machine Robo Series' dabbles with
science fiction influenced vehicles, coming out early in 1984
in Japan. A few months later, the toy would appear in America,
granted the name Path Finder. Tonka made the decision that the
character would be female, and Path Finder appeared
as such in the Challenge of the Gobots series. She
actually weighed in with a nice secondary role, frequently appearing
as the "guest" Guardian joining Leader-1,
Turbo and Scooter
on Earth and generally being respected with it (unlike the more
stereotypical Small Foot).
Path Finder was one of the line's best selling figures, remaining
in the range right up until the final series.

More
recently, in 2004 Takara cronies and professional money-for-nothing
merchants eHobby decided they'd take advantage of Hasbro owning
the Gobots trademarks. They planned a set of Minibot
recolours for a limited release in Japan, complete with fanboy-bullshit
backstory about Gobots crossing dimensions or something. As
Cosmos was one of the Minibots, that figure was chosen to be
Path Finder, despite the short,
fat, blue-and-yellow eyesore bearing no resemblance to the
Gobot at all. However, at the last moment Takara lost their
balls, not fancying even the tiniest chance of Bandai delivering
a fatal blow to their dwindling operation, and the toys came
out unnamed.

ALTERNATE
MODE

Path
Finder's vehicle mode is an odd one. If those three painted
silver indents on the front are meant to be windows (the silver
visor on the robot head might be a more obvious candidate, but
doesn't have the clearance to see past everything else) this
thing would be huge. It's more of a spaceship with a circular
wing than a bona fide flying saucer.

The
colour scheme works nicely enough, and there are a lot of random
details moulded on, but it really does look like a folded up
robot. There are some good attempts at disguise used; the feet
and head are both adorned by moulded boosters, while the hands
are very subtle, but it's still pretty hard to escape that there's
a robot in there due to the shape of these parts. All the moulding
and paint apps for the robot's chest doesn't help - it's pretty
difficult to imagine what they could be on a spaceship, ditto
for all the indented areas. Looseness is a big potential problem
on this figure, too - finding one with a neck that holds the
head in the right place, and a visor that doesn't slip back
can be tricky, and either of these defects can totally blow
whatever disguise there is in the alt mode.

ROBOT
MODE

The
transformation into robot mode is neat - simple but unusual,
with the arms flipping around, moving down to give enough space
for the legs to swing away and then back, the arms then moving
up into position and finally the face then being revealed in
a satisfying crowning movement.

Path
Finder is, quite simply, the most cartoon-accurate toy in the
range, looking and transforming exactly like her Challenge
representation (only the lack of elbows differentiates them).
This would normally be where I mock Tonka for their seemingly
arbitrary gender assigning, but for some reason it's impossible
for me to think of the figure as anything other than female.
Odd. The robot mode actually looks very sharp - the colour scheme
meshes in a much more satisfactory fashion, and all that detail
work that blighted the vehicle form comes nicely into play here.
Perhaps because of cartoon association, the face holds a bit
of character (I love the helmet), and the robot is very well
proportioned.

SUMMARY

In
summation, Path Finder is a neat, well-made figure with a cracking
robot mode. The saucer mode isn't really my cup of tea - in
all honesty, the basic concept wouldn't go down with me that
well regardless of how well sculpted the mode was. Nevertheless,
in robot mode she's good fun, and one of the most common cheap
Gobots. She blows Transformers equivalent Cosmos
to pieces on all fronts, and is well worth a look for those
wishing to sample the line.